While we have been distracted by the Trump chaos affecting the entire world over the past few years, Vladimir Putin and his nuclear ambitions have taken over 60% of the world’s nuclear technology. This includes his brilliant idea of developing and selling FLOATING nuclear reactors. Where will their waste end up? Who will possibly monitor it? There is bribery and corruption in the tale, spread across the planet from Egypt to Bangladesh to South Africa to Finland and Egypt, as only the murderous dictator Vladimir Putin could create. Michael Flynn wanted to be part of the sales team, as we now know.

Putin’s Nuclear Ambitions Now Threaten Planet Earth[/caption]

Here are the details, provided by California’s Ace Hoffman, anti-nuclear archivist and activist:

November 15th, 2018

Dear Readers,

Rosatom (formerly known as the Federal Agency on Atomic Energy, and now also known as the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, or the Rosatom State Corporation (1)), is the state-controlled Russian nuclear energy company that builds nuclear reactors (including icebreakers and — upcoming — floating power reactors, several of which are under construction at this time (2018)) (2). Rosatom also mines, refines, enriches and reprocesses uranium, and — big surprise here — makes Russia’s nuclear weapons. Established in 2007, its headquarters are in Moscow. Rosatom currently has over a quarter of a million employees (3).

Rosatom is the world’s largest exporter of nuclear technology, with roughly 60% of the current market (4). Rosatom is building, operating or has approval for approximately three dozen reactors in Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere (5). Expected service life for their current large power reactor series, the AES-2006, is a minimum of 60 years (6). In 60 years one reactor will produce approximately six million pounds of high level nuclear waste.

It is reasonable to assume that most, if not all of Rosatom’s foreign and domestic (Russia) reactors are approved through the payment of bribes. The resulting costs are usually far higher than they would be otherwise.

For example, in Bangladesh, where a “deep-rooted and widespread corruption culture” exists, all types of power plant cost far more than elsewhere in the world. One study estimated the average price of a power plant in Bangladesh was double the global average. Russia is building two units in Bangladesh (Rooppur 1 & 2), due to go online in 2030, currently estimated to cost 45% more than the same style of plant would cost in Russia (7).

In Saudi Arabia, where “corruption is widespread” (8): “Two committees in the US House of Representatives are investigating efforts by former US National Security Advisor Mike Flynn to enlist Russia’s Rosatom in a deal to deliver nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia” (9). Mr. Flynn recently pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and faces up to five years in prison (10). Rosatom doesn’t yet have a deal in Saudi Arabia, but is on the “short list” to build the first two reactors there (11). (Apparently, solar and oil are not considered viable options for the sun-rich and oil-rich nation.)

Another country plagued by corruption — and building and operating Rosatom reactors — is China. China and Rosatom recently (June, 2018) signed “the biggest package of contracts in the history of the two countries’ nuclear partnership” (12) to build four “Gen III+” VVER-1200 units as well as a CFR-600 fast reactor pilot project, and to supply Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators and Radionuclide Heater Units for China’s “lunar exploration program” (13). The space nuclear units will use Plutonium-238, one of the most toxic substances known, nearly 300 times *more* toxic than weapons-grade plutonium-239 (Pu-238′s decay cycle is correspondingly less than Pu-239′s 24,100 year half-life).

How corrupt is China? “At least 12 senior-level NEA [National Energy Administration] officials have been investigated or charged with corruption in the past decade, including two directors and four deputy directors” (14). The NEA agency is only one decade old! In 2010 the former head of China’s main nuclear energy company was jailed for life over bribes (15). At the current pace, China will be the leading producer of nuclear energy by 2030 (16). China will thus also be the leading producer of nuclear waste. After Fukushima, China decided to place most of its new nuclear reactors along its coast, not at interior sites, presumably so that if/when there are meltdowns, most of the radiation will be spread globally, with a much smaller proportion poisoning China itself.

Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Unit 3 Destroyed March 2011 Tsunami/Earthquake/Explosion; China Wants To Now Place Their New Reactors Close To The Ocean So That Any Radioactive Leakage/Accidents Would Flow Into The Ocean, Rather Than Forever Contaminate Much Of Their Land[/caption]

In 2017 Rosatom signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the nuclear power division of Brazil’s state-owned energy companies (Eletrobras and an affiliate of Eletrobras), with the plan of building at least two reactors there (17). Brazil is now governed by a far right-wing racist president, Jair Bolsonaro, considered by many (for example, his son) to be “just like Trump” (18). Bolsonaro ran on an “anti-corruption” platform; however his campaign was accused of fraud, spreading fake news, and violating campaign finance laws (19).

Recently Rosatom signed deals with Egypt to build the first nuclear power plants in North Africa. Russia will provide 85% of the projected $21+ Billion cost. Four 1200 Megawatt reactors will be located about 100 miles south of Cairo (20). The cost of Russia’s loan to Egypt could swell to over $70 Billion during the 35-year life of the loan, and cost overruns are typical with all Rosatom deals (21).

In India, where Rosatom has contracted to build a dozen reactors (22), India’s former chief regulator was concerned that substandard parts were being supplied by Rosatom subsidiary Zio-Podolsk, after one of Z-P’s directors was arrested on charges of corruption, fraud, and supplying “cheap Ukrainian steel blanks and steam generators” for the reactors at Kudankulam (23).

In Finland, Rosatom took over partial ownership of the Hanhikivi 1 reactor after financial problems nearly sunk the project before it even began. It is “the biggest investment project in Finland” (24). Construction is expected to start in 2020. Originally claiming the project would cost around $5 Billion, current estimates put the total cost nearing double that, with completion optimistically expected in 2024 (25). Doubling (or worse) of the cost of nuclear reactors is so frequent it can’t be accidental — therefore it should be considered a form of corruption.

One deal that Rosatom tried to make apparently fell through — a $76 Billion scam to build ten nuclear reactors in South Africa. The arrangement “reeked of corruption” and would have represented 1/4 of South Africa’s GDP (26).

Rosatom makes deals that involve loaning massive sums of money to cash-poor countries, and requiring payback even if the projects are not completed on time (or ever). Most of the financial arrangements are kept secret and — as can be seen from the above examples and many others — most probably involve corruption, mismanagement, bribes, and other scandals. Once a deal is in place, the Russian government uses the arrangement to exercise political pressure, stopping construction until the country bends to their demands or — as in the case in 2014 in Ukraine — threatening to cut off nuclear fuel supplies for their Soviet-built reactors (27).

And even in countries without a Rosatom nuclear power plant deal, Rosatom corruption runs deep. According to a New York Times article from 2015, Rosatom “had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West” (28). The sale gave Rosatom control of 1/5th of all U.S. uranium capacity in a deal signed off by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who’s Clinton Foundation then received over $2.35 million in donations from four family members of the Russian company known as Uranium One (which became a fully-owned Rosatom subsidiary in 2013). Tens of millions more dollars were donated to the Clinton Foundation by “a constellation of people with ties to Uranium One or UrAsia” (UrAsia merged with Uranium One in 2007). These donations were not properly disclosed in a timely manner, despite Hillary Clinton’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to do so (29).

Rosatom pushes nuclear technology in all forms, including having built more than 120 “research” reactors around the world, representing nearly half of all research reactors (30). So-called “research” reactors, more often than not, merely train reactor operators for future jobs in industry, and many are fueled with uranium enriched to up to 20% U-235, instead of the 4% to 5% enrichment for most power reactors. Such enriched fuel is more easily converted to bomb material.

In an undated page at Rosatom’s web site, they claim to have adopted an anti-corruption and anti-embezzlement program which “has already contributed to building a corruption-free environment within ROSATOM” (31).

Maybe.

But meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin, through his security forces and rabid supporters, continues to assassinate political opponents, reporters, whistleblowers, lawyers, and former security agents, even those who have left the country and sought asylum in Western democracies.

In retrospect: Best movie was ‘The Rocket,’ shot in Laos. Excellent. Great cinematography of the landscape of Laos, with superb Laotian actors. Enthralling classic movie to be seen again and again and again. 2nd best: ‘Oh Boy’ – German movie about a young man, a bit adrift in life, getting slammed in all directions as he deliberately contemplates his next step, but too often gets stepped on. Great characters, acting, humor. ‘The Human Scale’ as noted above. ‘Tasting Menu’ also noted above.

The 21st Hamptons International Film Festival started off with a big literal bang for my wife and me as we were lucky enough to see the wonderful movie, set in Laos of all places, entitled ‘The Rocket.’ The Laotian cast is magnificent, from Ahlo, the little boy, who is the star of the show, his beautiful mother, his grandmother (with just black stumps for teeth, who is tough as nails, spiritual, superstitious), his father, the little girl he meets and her uncle, played by Thep Phongam, into the music and aura of James Brown, who is different and accustomed to being rejected by the drones of local society. The Laos of the story is under communist rule, and when a dammed area is to be extended to flood Ahlo’s family’s village, not much can be done but be relocated. The survival story is that of creative adaptable people, doing what they can against severe forces of man and nature. There is much joy and terrible tragedy. But the hope of the movie goes to a rocket festival, the winner of which will win a large sum of money. The panoramic landscape cinematography of this beautiful wartorn country, strewn with rockets and old bombs like the massive ‘Sleeping Tiger,’ is magnificent and frightening. A classic fantastic movie not to be missed! It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative film this year at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC, NY.

(Now it is Saturday Oct 19, 2013 and in retrospect, yes, ‘The Rocket’ has to be my favorite movie of the entire festival. Good start this year, to see it as the first movie for us, this past Thursday 10 -10 – 13. A movie so good you might want to buy it and have it around your house to watch every year or two, maybe on Independence Day July 4 in America. Fireworks. Rockets….)

The next movie we saw was the documentary ‘Chimeras,’ another Asian film, about two Chinese artists, shot in mostly Beijing and Shanghai. The artists are Wang Guangyi and Liu Gang, real life artists struggling with their artistic creativity in an oppressive totalitarian China. Guangyi is very successful, middle-aged, doing massive works, with very interesting industrial techniques, much in appreciation of communism’s struggle, honoring Mao Tse Dung, including one gigantic portrait of him, with small bars over the image of his face. When viewing this work several times during the film, I couldn’t tell if he was behind the bars, or more likely the viewer was. The magnificence and grandeur of scale of today’s Beijing is gigantically surprising to me. All I had ever seen of it was smog and dark huge monolithic ugly buildings, but this is not what we see in Mika Mattila’s cinema depiction.

The huge scale of China’s capital city fits the massiveness of our planet’s largest country. The beauty and the architecture, the traffic, the tall needle structure like that of the building in Seattle, the colors, the intricacy of design is worth the price of admission to this interesting film. During which, Wang Guangyi is not hesitant to voice his disgust for authorities, critics, always comparing his and other seminal modern Chinese art to western art, as if western art is the basis for all fine art. We see him do this at meetings, and in discussions with other artists. His work ‘The Other Shore’ of a valley and finely depicted trees and vegetation in light yellow, green and white, as on a slightly cloudy day, starts the movie off and finishes it, but again, behind bars, as with Mao’s face, as the movie ends. Liu Gang is a young fortunate photographer who has garnered sudden success with his works in a ‘Paper Dreams’ theme that has travelled around the world. He takes shots of advertisements and other images and crumples them up sometimes to uniquify them. The portrait ends of him getting married, with very creative wedding photos being presented in his ‘paused’ career, as he now is working in a Dutch Museum in Beijing to earn money to support his three person family. He had wanted to do a next presentation about China’s ‘One Child Policy,’ but had met much opposition to this project. We also learn about children being murdered during the operation of this policy, and pregnant women being targeted, gangs of men attacking and kidnapping them at night. This is an intriguing, sometimes disturbing, intellectually rewarding film by a Finnish director that I would have to give a high A+

Good quote about art, shared in this movie: “If you fail, art is suffering. If you succeed, art is still suffering.”

‘Two Autumns, Three Winters,’ is a romantic French film shot in cinema verite, with the actor acting, then talking to the camera, then seamlessly continuing along in the context of the scene. There are basically two couples in this tale, that mostly takes place in Paris. Tragedies occur to the two male leads in separate incidents, framing the film and its romantic interludes. Maud Wyler is the lovely Amelie, and Vincent Macaigne plays the main character, another artist, who has abandoned art and a relationship that brought him to Paris in the first place, from Bordeaux.

There are series of shorts, collected as themed shows, scattered throughout the festival. Often these include the jewels of the festival, but this was not overwhelmingly true for ‘The Edge Of The World’ shorts. Mostly bleh and not very inspiring, yet interesting enough to sit through – - what deserves the only high mention is the animated ‘Oh, Willy.” Chunky small-eyed Willy returns to his mother on her death bed all sad and lonely. She is living in a lovely environment, that turns out to be a nudist colony in summer with beautiful vegetation and buzzing flying insects and birds all about. This short is delightful, and the redeeming one of ‘Edge’ – - plus it has won eighty awards internationally.

Dr. Conrad Miller appeared on worldwide internet radio on April 1, 2010 at 6:35 PM Eastern Time; 3:35 PM Pacific Time, with the Puffman, Jerry Puffer on KSEN-AM 1150 Radio in Shelby, Montana. The show was hearable at http://www.ksenam.com/onair_page.php?id=5 but is not stored, regrettably. However:

Both the Puffman and the Dresser interviews were listenable via the miracle of the internet anywhere on Earth with internet access. Generation of electricity and the promising non-toxic alternatives esp wind and solar were discussed, vs the dangerous nuclear push being engineered by President Obama.

Although the current President is now telling the world that nuclear power is ‘safe and clean,’ there are stirrings in America, and many facts showing
adverse health effects from nuclear power plants to contradict such a claim.

Americans should know that our country has been called ‘The Persian Gulf Of Wind.’ In fact, by installing 10,000 new megawatts of windpower in 2009 [an average nuclear plant generates about 1000 megawatts], we are ahead of former #1 wind power nation Germany, that country installing about 1500 new megawatts of wind power annually. China has quickly become number 3, with 25,104 total megawatts of wind installed.

But who is publicizing this?? Plus the overwhelming relative safety of wind
vs. nuclear?

A new nuclear plant may take 6-8 years to come online, at an estimated real cost of $10-$12 billion. Then there is the unsolveable problem of where to store the most toxic waste on Earth, radioactive waste. Just think, in say seven years, even if we stayed at the current rate of installation, we should have `70,000 new megawatts of safe wind power – installing 10,000 megawatts per year.
With 33% calculated average ‘capacity’ for wind, that would equal the output of 24 nuclear plants before any one nuclear plant would even come online.

Dr. Miller. 6:35 EST April 1, 2010 on the Shelby, Montana station KSEN-AM 1150, for about 25 minutes discussed nuclear power vs alternative safe power at a time when studies are coming out showing increased cancer rates surrounding nuclear plants. Americans should also know that 30 of our 104 nuclear plants have leaked. A few weeks ago, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 to close the Vermont Yankee reactor when its license expires in 2012. Why? Because Entergy, the corporation that owns the plant had been lying about a most recent tritium water leak occurring, and also lying about the existence of any possible pipes where the leaks could have originated from.

However, when the truth unavoidably emerged, Entergy did admit there were indeed pipes and they were leaking, which enraged Vermont citizens. In addition, another leak that evaded publicity, was denied ever occurring, also was revealed to have occurred starting back in 2005.

Same type of story in the town of Godley, Illinois. There for nine years the Braidwood nuclear reactor, it was finally revealed, had leaked 6 MILLION gallons of tritium tainted water radioactively polluting the town’s salty wells. After finally admitting that they had lied, Exelon, now the biggest nuclear power corporation in America with 17 reactors in our country, started delivering bottled water to local residents. Here is a brief statement about tritium so you can get the picture:

Tritium is an ‘activation product’ resulting from fissioning of uranium in
what was supposed to be Godley’s “cream of the crop”[i] nuclear reactor.
Tritium can pass through our skin while we are showering or even washing our dishes. According to the Grandfather of Health Physics, the late Karl Z. Morgan, tritium “is the only radionuclide for which we assume as much is taken into the body via skin penetration as by inhalation. It is the MOST invasive of all radionuclides and distributes itself rather uniformly to all organs and all body tissues on a microCurie per gram basis. It presents a somatic, genetic and teratogenic [cancerous] risk. It cannot be separated from liquid waste by evaporation, a process used to concentrate most radionuclides [especially in nuclear reactors].”[ii]

The latest from Joe Cosgrove down in Will County, south of Chicago, from
President Obama’s home state is:

“In November of 2008, Exelon – Braidwood Nuclear Station
donated $11,500,000.00 dollars to the Godley Public Water
District to install a municipal water system for 225 households.
The donation was a gift, while they clearly stated that it had nothing
to do with the releases of radionuclides to the ground water, but
just wanted to be a “good neighbor”.

Bottled water is still be supplied to residents until such time
that the system goes on line.

In 2006, The Illinois Attorney General, Illinois EPA and the Will County
States Attorney filed a lawsuit for numerous violations by Exelon,
namely the discharge of contaminants to the groundwater, without permit.
This case has been on going and is now set for trial in May. So far,
besides the injunction to clean up the contamination, no Consent
decree has been entered.

We still look forward to updating the Federal study concerning
health statistics in proximity to nuclear plants. There is movement
by the NRC to do this and to have the same opened for peer review.”

Of course, there have been numerous studies in other countries showing
increased cancer rates surrounding nuclear plants.

Also, we should be aware that over 500 radionuclides are produced
by fissioning uranium to make heat and then steam to turn a turbine
and produce electricity, which can be done infinitely more safely
with a wind turbine or solar/photovoltaics. Each of these dangerous
radionuclides can emit radioactive rays or electrons that can
strike our DNA to cause mutations and cancer. Plus many are very
long-lived: Cesium has a half life of ~30 years and a hazardous life
during which we have to worry about it, lasting 300-600 years.

Plutonium-239 has a 24,000 year half life and thus a 240,000 – 480,000
year hazardous life.

Just a microgram of plutonium can cause lung cancer. That means,
if vaporized in an accident (e.g., like Chernboyl) just 20 pounds
of plutonium could be dispersed around the world and theoretically
possibly cause lung cancer in every human being on Earth (454 grams
in one pound; 454 MILLION micrograms in one pound). Remember,
not 31, but more than 300,000 people have died prematurely with
cancer from Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination, as stated by
biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov, president of the Center for Russian
Environmental Policy in his 2007 book.

In addition, the Westinghouse AP-1000 new wonder nuclear plants that
President Obama is pushing to be built in Georgia have been
rejected as unsafe by the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] already!!
Meanwhile, the utilities in Georgia and Florida are sucking up
their ratepayers by increasing their rates NOW to ratchet up moneys
to pay for these new nuclear plants in advance. AND, the Congressional
Budget Office has stated that ~50% of the nuclear loan guarantees will go
into default, so the US taxpayer will end up picking up the bills on
the bad loans.

Also, concerning the $8.3 Billion nuclear loan guarantees, the
Department of Energy has not been able to spend its existing
loan guarantee authority, and since actual guarantees can’t be
granted until a reactor receives a license from the NRC, it will
be years more before any actual guarantee can be issued.

‘Every one of the proposed new reactors in the U.S. already has
experienced delays, and every one has a combination of design,
safety, economics and radioactive waste problems that make them
highly speculative at best’ >> according to the Nuclear Information
and Resource Service [NIRS] in Washington D.C..

The Clipper 2.5 megawatt wind turbine can supply 675 homes with
electricity. 112,000 of these can supply all of America’s homes
with electricity. This would create a vast amount of jobs,
and a vital future industry that will be sustainable to aid
a rapidly growing population on this Earth. And then there’s solar
power, which Dr. David Goodstein of CalTech states can power
all of America’s homes within a decade, utilizing an area equivalent
to 80 square miles in one of our southwestern deserts.

OTHER HOT NUCLEAR POWER NEWS:

A few weeks ago in West Virginia, a bill to repeal that state’s
ban on new nuclear construction was defeated in the state legislature.
See more at
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=75844 ]

In Arizona, a bill to classify nuclear power as renewable energy was
withdrawn [ http://bit.ly/93YHyf ] following heavy lobbying from the
solar power industry and environmental community.

So, although the bully pulpit is being occupied by Obama and his push
for nuclear power, the American people are having their say contrary
to his audacious advocacy.

One last vision of where this is all coming from: Karl Grossman in
his Nuclear Obama Counterpunch article available on the internet:

Steven Chu, Obama’s ‘Department of Energy secretary typifies the
religious-like zeal for nuclear power emanating for decades from
scientists in the U.S. government’s string of national nuclear
laboratories. Chu was director of one of these, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, before becoming head of DOE.

First established during World War II’s Manhattan Project to
build atomic weapons, the laboratories after the war began
promoting civilian nuclear technology—and have been pushing it
unceasingly ever since. It has been a way to perpetuate the
vested interest created during World War II. The number of
nuclear weapons that could be built was limited because atomic
bombs don’t lend themselves to commercial distribution, but
in pushing food irradiation, nuclear-powered airplanes and
rockets, atomic devices for excavation and, of course, nuclear
power, the budgets and staffs of the national nuclear laboratories
could be maintained, indeed increase.

That was the analysis of David Lilienthal, first chairman of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which preceded the Department of
Energy. Lilienthal in his 1963 book Change, Hope, and the Bomb
wrote: “The classic picture of the scientist as a creative
individual, a man obsessed, working alone through the night,
a man in a laboratory pushing an idea—this has changed.
Now scientists are ranked in platoons. They are organization men.
In many cases the independent and humble search for new truths about
nature has been confused with the bureaucratic impulse to justify
expenditure and see that next year’s budget is bigger than last’s.”

Lilienthal wrote about the “elaborate and even luxurious [national nuclear]
laboratories that have grown up at Oak Ridge, Argonne, Brookhaven”
and the push to use nuclear devices for “blowing out harbors, making
explosions underground to produce steam, and so on” which show “how
far scientists and administrators will go to try to establish a nonmilitary
use” for nuclear technology.

Chu, like so many of the national nuclear laboratory scientists and
administrators, minimizes the dangers of radioactivity. If they didn’t,
if they acknowledged how life-threatening the radiation produced by
nuclear technology is, their favorite technology would crumble.

A major theme of Chu, too, is a return to the notion promoted by
the national nuclear laboratories in the 1950s and 60s of “recycling”
and “reusing” nuclear waste. This way, they have hoped, it might not
be seen as waste at all. The concept was to use radioactive Cesium-137
(the main poison discharged in the Chernobyl disaster) to irradiate
food, to use depleted uranium to harden bullets and shells, and so on.

In recent weeks, with Obama carrying out his pledge not to allow Yucca
Mountain to become a nuclear waste dump, Chu set up a “blue-ribbon” panel
on radioactive waste—stacked with nuclear power advocates including Exelon’s
John Rowe—that is expected to stress the “recycling” theory.

“We are aggressively pursuing nuclear energy,” declared Chu in
January as he announced DOE’s budget plan—which included an increase
in the 2011 federal budget in monies for nuclear loan guarantees to
build new nuclear plants cited by Obama Tuesday. “We are, as we have
repeatedly said, working hard to restart the American nuclear power industry.”
The $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Obama announced Tuesday is to come
from $18.5 billion in guarantees proposed by the George W. Bush administration
and authorized by Congress in 2005. “My budget proposes tripling the loan
guarantees we provide to help finance safe, clean nuclear facilities,”
said Obama Tuesday, referring to the DOE plan which would add $36 billion
and bring the loan guarantee fund to $54.5. And this despite candidate
Obama warning about “enormous subsidies from the U.S. government” to the
nuclear industry.’

See more at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman02172010.html

Lots going on here. Lots of money at stake. While kids get cancer living
around nuclear plants. And John Rowe and Steven Chu attempt to further
nuclearize our world, when we have the means with truly safe wind and sun
to provide the electricity for all USA homes within a decade.